Banned drivers face arrest if caught driving

Motorists driving while disqualified can be arrested on the spot and may have their vehicle seized under new measures, coming into force next week.

Currently, those caught driving while banned are usually served with a summons, and brought to court some months later.

However, from Monday gardaí will have the power to arrest disqualified drivers and bring them before the court on the same day.

“As it stands, issuing court proceedings which could take months is the only option open to gardaí when someone is caught driving while banned from the road,” said Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe yesterday.

“As of Monday, what will happen is if you are caught driving while disqualified, your car will be taken off you, you will be arrested on the spot, you’ll be taken to a garda station and if the courts are sitting that day, at the discretion of the gardaí you’ll be taken to court that day and you’ll be prosecuted for that offence,” Mr Donohoe told RTÉ radio.

However, penalties for driving while disqualified remain unchanged. A disqualified driver faces a maximum of six months in jail, a further ban and a €5,000 fine.

“There’s a substantial change in the sanction now because what it will mean is that it will be immediately applicable”, said Mr Donohoe, who signed the order into law yesterday.

“I expect that this will have a very significant deterrent effect for persons who drive while disqualified and, ultimately enhance safety on our roads.”

Each year, a reported 10% of offenders continue to drive on Irish roads.

In 2014, almost 13,000 people were disqualified from driving. Some 1,392 were later prosecuted for driving illegally.

So, far this year, nearly 6,000 people have been disqualified, with 592 prosecuted for continuing to drive.

Mr Donohoe said this is an extremely serious issue that “needs to be tackled”.

“People who continue to drive after they have been disqualified commit a serious and unacceptable offence,” he said.

“They are blatantly disregarding the sanction imposed by the court for another offence or offences which has put them off the road and should be dealt with severely.

“It is a particularly serious form of unlicensed driving because people in such cases have been explicitly barred from driving, generally for road traffic offences, which means that they have posed a danger on the roads.”

Mr Donohoe said one of the reasons that disqualified drivers continue to get behind the wheel is because they believe they will not get caught.

The new measures implemented to give gardaí the power to arrest disqualified drivers on the spot are part of “a number of further changes” needed to make the roads safer for all users.

Meanwhile, Mr Donohoe said he will shortly be making a decision about on-the-spot fines for cyclists who commit certain breaches of road regulations. Details are expected within the next two weeks.

“We need to have a message that’s clear and we also need to have measures that reflect the reality of what is happening on our roads,” he said. “The reason why on-the-spot fines are being examined is we don’t have the situation where you get a licence for having a bike or a cyclist so we need to look at other ways of dealing with this matter.”